Introduction to

Anthropology
What is Anthropology?

The word is from two Greek terms:

Anthropo: “mankind”
Logos: “study of” or “science of”
. Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, the
behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development
of humans.
 Many anthropologists follow Clifford Geertz in insisting
that anthropology is ‘not an experimental science in search
of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning’
(Geertz 1973);
How Do We Define
Anthropology?
 “The Comparative and Holistic Study of Humankind”:
Interest in humanity is due to diversity of humankind
 Comparative: Tries to answer the questions of why
cultures are the way they are. Aims to compare different
culture (Ethnology)
 Holistic: Anthropology takes a holistic approach,
examining the inter-relation and integration of human
biological and cultural life, as well as a holistic and
ecological approach to humans in dynamic relation with
the environment and other living beings.
Four Fields of Anthropology

Physical Anthropology: The comparative

study of human attributes, past and present
Archaeology: The comparative study of past
cultures through its material cultural remains
Linguistics: The study of spoken language, a
distinctly human trait
Cultural Anthropology: The comparative
study of cultures around the world
How they fit: all involve a question about
culture: where it came from, what it entails
The concept of Culture

“Culture is a complex whole that includes law,

arts, norms, morals, knowledge, customs, end
everything that a human being acquires as a
member of society” (E.B.Tylor, 1871)
Cultures comprise system of shared ideas, system
of concepts and rules and meanings that underlie
and are expressed in the ways that human beings
live”(Keesing and stathern)
Enculturation is the process of learning one’s
own culture through the process of interaction and
growing up within a society.
Physical Anthropology and Culture

Our brain:
Source of language
Source of tool-making
ability/learning skills
Conceptualization of phenomena
according to the cultural concepts
Our Lungs and Mouth: Our
ability to speak
Our Arms and Hands: Our ability
to make and use tools
Our Bipedal Skeleton: Our ability
to stand, walk, and ability to do all
of the above
The context of the culture

 Cultural background has an important influence on many aspects

of people’s lives, including their believes, behavior, diet,
perceptions, emotions, language, religion, rituals, family
structures, dress, body image, concept of time and space, attitudes
to illness and health. All of which may have important
implications for health and health care.
 Factors influence human health
 1. individual factors (age, gender, size, appearance, intelligence and experience)
 2. Educational Factors (formal, informal, religious, ethnic)
 3. Socio-economic factors (social class, economic status, network of s. support)

 4. Environmental factors ( geographical areas, pollution etc)

Public Health and
Anthropology
 During the last few decades medical researchers and public
health specialists have shown an increasing interest in
anthropology.
 The main reason for this interest has been the realization
that there is more to health and disease than physical and
biological processes.
 It has become clear that in order to overcome barriers to
the uptake of health interventions and develop culturally
appropriate, sustainable interventions, it is first necessary
to understand the social and cultural context of health and
disease.
Medical Anthropology
 A bio cultural discipline concerned with both biological
and sociocultural aspects of human behavior and
particularly with the ways in which two interacted
throughout human history to influence health and
disease”.

 Medical anthropology describes, interprets and

critically appraises the relationships between
culture, behavior, health and disease, and places
health and illness in the broader context of
cultural, social, political, economic and
historical processes. (Foster and Anderson
1978)
Two Major divisions
 Biological Pole: Human growth and
development, the role of disease in human
evolution, racial types, genetics, anatomist and
biochemist.
 Sociocultural Pole: Traditional medical
systems, medical persons and their professional
preparations, illness behavior, doctor-patient
relationship and dynamics of introduction of
western medical services into traditional
societies.
Major orientations of
Medical Anthropology
 Since the mid-1960s, medical anthropology has developed three
major orientations.
 Medical ecology views populations as biological as well as
cultural units and studies interactions among ecological systems,
health, and human evolution.
 Ethno medical analysis focuses on cultural systems of healing
and the cognitive parameters of illness. Ethno medicine “those
beliefs and practices relating to disease which are the products of
indigenous cultural development and are not explicitly derived
from the conceptual framework of modern medicine”.
 Applied medical anthropology deals with intervention,
prevention, and policy issues and analyses the socioeconomic
forces and power differentials that influence access to care.
Health and Culture
 In all human societies, beliefs and practices relating to ill health
are central feature of culture. Origins of ill health is related to
accidents, misfortunes, supernatural, natural disasters.
 Significance of understanding ill health from the cultural
perspective.
 System of social organization (the health care system) includes
the ways in which people have become recognized as ill, the
ways of presenting illness to others, attributes of those who
present, and ways the illness is dealt with.
 Anthropologists view the healer that how thy fit into the social
system as a whole, a rank in social hierarchy, economic and
political power.
Emic and Etic
Perspective
 Emic Perspective: it is insider perspective of community
 what people perceive about any fact
 each culture represents a particular configuration of elements
and it must be understood in its own terms. Like concept of
illness and presentation of symptoms. (case study of ORS in
Pakistan)

 Etic Perspective: Outsider’s point of view

 outsider can be any observer, researcher himself and the
views of other researchers about those people who are being
observed. Doctor’s perspective about the causation of illness
and its treatment.
Example of endogamy
 Clinical medicine: To identify the clinical
manifestation of the disease
 Pathology: to confirm the disease on cellular
and biochemical level.
 Genetics: To identify and predict the hereditary
basis of disease and its linkage to a recessive
gene
 Epidemiology: To show its high incidence in a
particular population in relation to pooling of
recessive genes and certain marriage customs
 Social or cultural Anthropology: To explain
marriage patterns of the society.
Ethnocentrism and
cultural relativism
 Ethnocentrism: To judge other’s behavior
according to the standards of one’ s own
culture. (Aging in US, Gender perspectives on
health and illness)

 Cultural relativism: cultural traits should be

understood in terms of its original culture and
of those members who follow it. (pregnancy
and child birth) (Patient and his sickness should
be understood in terms of his cultural
perspective)
Disease theory and Health care system

Medical system of all groups can be divided into two major

categories
 Disease Theory system: it includes believes about the nature of
health, the causes of illness, remedies and other curing techniques
used by curers. A disease theory system is an ideational,
conceptual system, intellectual construct and a part of cognitive
orientation of members of the group.
 Health care system: health care system is manifestation of
disease theory. It is a social institution that involves interaction of
patient and curer. Health care system is to mobilize resources of
the patient, his family and his society to bring them solution of
their problem.
Cultural Definitions of anatomy and
physiology

 Human body is more than just a physical organism, fluctuating

between health and illness. It is also the focus of set of beliefs about
its social and psychological significance, its structure and functioning.
 Body Image: “The manner in which a person has learnt to organize
and integrate his body experiences” (Fisher). Enculturation teaches
how to perceive and interpret many changes that can occur over a
period of time in our own bodies.
 Shape, size, clothing and surface of the body have social significance
as well
 Artificial changes in shape, size and surface like surgeries for beauty.
Artificial deformation of skull during infancy in Peru, binding of
women’s feet in imperial china, artificial fattening in of girls in parts
of Africa etc..
 Some areas of the body are more vulnerable than others like for
chills, colds, top of head, neck and feet …
The inner structure of the body

 To most people inner structure is the matter of speculation.

Several studies have been carried out on lay conceptions of inner
structure of the body. Boyle studied 234 patients. Only 18% answers
were correct regarding placement of organs. Bodily perceptions
influence how patients present symptoms and interpret their
discomfort.
 illness may also involve reifying a diseased organ or bodily part
– thinking of it as partly under control, unpleasant or unreliable
like week chest, nervous stomach or irritable colon.
 Body image in clinical diagnosis is also seen in the presentation
of non-organic signs and symptoms.
The Functioning of the body

 Beliefs about functioning of the body usually deal with one or

more inter-related aspects;
 1. its inner working
 2. the effect on these of outside influences, such as diet or the
environment
 3. The nature (and disposal) of the by products of the body’s
functioning, such as faeces, urine and menstrual blood.
 Balance and imbalance: Healthy working of the body is thought
to depend on harmonious balance between two or more elements
or forces within the body.
 Humoral theory like “hot ant cold”. Diet and environment can
effect balance, Chinese Ayurveda like yin (dark, moist, watery anf
female like heart, lungs, kidneys) and yang (hot, dry, fiery and
male such as intestines, stomach and goll bladder)
Contd..

Contemporary concepts have been borrowed from western world of

science and technology
 The Plumbing model of the body
 Body as “machine”

 Body during pregnancy

All cultures share beliefs about the vulnerability of mother and fetus
during pregnancy; to a variable extent, this extends after child birth
and postpartum period.
 Beliefs about menstruation
4 anthropological approaches to the study of illness
representations

 Illness representations as folk beliefs: the applied tradition

 Beliefs drive the behavior, illness is a biological reality but a cultural and socially constructed
reality as well.

 Illness representations as formal cognitive structures: the view from cognitive anthropology

Levi Strauss, parol (manifestation) and langue (underlying pattern), health care seeking depends upon
patterns of illness and the development of schema while living in the culture.

 Illness representations as culturally constituted illness realities: the ‘meaning-centered’

tradition

 illness representations are multi vocal symbols that condense a set of associated meanings and are
linked to an underlying ‘semantic network.’ (Explanatory model)

 Illness representations as authorized misrepresentation: views from ‘critical’ medical

anthropology

 when illness representations are actually misrepresentations that serve the interests of those in
power, be they colonial powers, elites within a society, the medical profession, or empowered men.
Illness, the patients perspective

 Becoming ill and definitions of health

 The explanatory model: “To offer explanations of sickness and
treatment to guide choices among available therapies and
therapists and to cast personal and social meaning on the
experience of sickness” (Kleinman 1978).
 In particular they provide explanations for five aspects of illness;
 1. The etiology or cause of the condition
 2. The timing and model of onset of symptoms
 3. The pathophysiological process involved.
 4. The natural history and severity of illness.
 5. The appropriate treatments for the condition.
Lay theories of illness causation

 In general, lay theories of illness place the etiology or causation

of ill health in one of the following sites, or in combination of
them.
 1. The individual world (age, gender, education, profession)
 2. The natural world ( weathers, sun, moon, environment etc)
 3. The social world ( Friends, family and society)
 4. The supernatural world ( Superstition, religious and ethnic
factors )
Health care System

 Kleinman suggested that wide range of therapeutic options are

available. Each sector has its own ways of explaining and treating
ill-health, defining who is healer and who is the patient, and
specifying how healer and patient should interact with each other.
 1. The popular sector: self medication, advice or treatment given
by a relative, friend, neighbor or workmate and any other person
with special experience of a particular disease, doctor’s spouse,
members who interact frequently with public like hair dressers,
sales people etc.
 2. The folk sector: folk healers have little formal training. Skills
are usually acquired through inheritance, position within the
family, signs and portents at birth, apprentice ship to another
healer, knowledge of some herbs, spiritual healing.
 3. The professional sector: this comprises the organized, legally
sanctioned healing professions such as modern western scientific
Medical Pluralism and Syncretism

 The idea of medical systems is closely related to the concept of

medical pluralism,
 the use, within one system, or one society, of different sectors or
medical traditions. This can take different forms:
 • Separate use. For example, African villagers generally go to a
health center for the treatment of gonorrhea and to a diviner if
they suspect witchcraft.
 • Hierarchy of resort. In Africa this often takes the form of
initial self-medication followed by biomedical treatment if the
former does not work and finally traditional treatment if the
sickness does not respond to biomedicine vice versa in Europe.
Medical pluralism and Syncretism

 • Simultaneous use. People use different kinds of treatment at

the same time. For
 example, John Janzen describes people who think that
biomedicine is effective,
 ‘but their conviction that less tangible social and mystical causes
have intervened obliges them to intersperse visits to the hospital
with visits to indigenous practitioners’ (Janzen 1978).
 Syncretism. a term taken from religious studies, refers to unifying
or reconciling different or opposing schools of thought.